Poverty

There were no Downtown East residents living below the
poverty level in 1979, but there were 22 of them (69 percent) in 1989. By 1999, 56 neighborhood residents were living in poverty. That put Downtown East's poverty level at 52 percent, which is much higher than Minneapolis' 17 percent. Downtown East had no people 65 or over living below the poverty level.

In 1979 and 1989 there were no records of families living below the
poverty level in Downtown East. But by 1999, 12 families (43 percent) were living in poverty in the neighborhood. Minneapolis' percentage of families living in poverty increased from 9 percent to 12 percent from 1979 to 1999, and the poverty rate for families with children rose from 16 percent to 19 percent. There were no families with children living in poverty in the neighborhood in the entire period.